95 lumina ecm question

[Rich25015]

I recently bought a 95 lumina off of my girlfriends brother. The car was running fine but was not charging. He was changing the alt. and grounded the power wire out , now the car wont start any suggestions on where to start?

[tblake]

It probably has nothing to do with the ECM at all, just to let you know, dont want ya to spend 300+ on a new ECM, only to have the same problem. I need more detail as to what is happening? You get in, do your head lights work? You turn the key to on, can you hear the fuel pump for a few secs? You turn to start, does the car crank? Or no crank? My guess is probably just a bad connection to the starter. Good luck. Keep us informed.

[jeffcoslacker]

Originally Posted by tblake

It probably has nothing to do with the ECM at all, just to let you know, dont want ya to spend 300+ on a new ECM, only to have the same problem. I need more detail as to what is happening? You get in, do your head lights work? You turn the key to on, can you hear the fuel pump for a few secs? You turn to start, does the car crank? Or no crank? My guess is probably just a bad connection to the starter. Good luck. Keep us informed.

Yup, chances are he zorched the fuseable link at the starter. There is one that goes directly from the alternator to the main bus at the starter. Fuseable links are wires that burn through internally when overloaded. If you look at the motor from underneath, the starter is facing the radiator. There will be several wires leading to it. Check that all are not burnt, then feel them near the ends. A burnt link will feel like a wet noodle where the wire has burnt out, if you can't see any scorching in the insulator. Links are sold by burn out amperage, just like fuses, and you simply cut the burnt potion off, and splice to the new one with the supplied connector. There will be one that is the same color and gauge as the one at the alternator, that one is most suspect, but look at them all. Also check your fuses, on the right side of the dashboard, and under the hood near the battery, as one of them may have blown. Gotta be careful crossing polarity on these. My Grandpa tried to jump my sister's Buick Century, crossed up the cables and blew out the alternator, radio, air conditioning, and a few others.

[Rich25015]

Originally Posted by tblake

It probably has nothing to do with the ECM at all, just to let you know, dont want ya to spend 300+ on a new ECM, only to have the same problem. I need more detail as to what is happening? You get in, do your head lights work? You turn the key to on, can you hear the fuel pump for a few secs? You turn to start, does the car crank? Or no crank? My guess is probably just a bad connection to the starter. Good luck. Keep us informed.

I appreciate your reply,
Upon closer inspection I found the wire coming from the ecm fuse was burnt in half. I repaired it and that seemed to do the trick
Thanks

[jeffcoslacker]

Thank you for posting the resolution. It helps us have more to consider the next time we see this behavior. It sucks to give advice and never hear anything more. Cars are getting to the point where there are so many variables that can cause the same symptoms, it is nearly impossible to diagnose them in a forum such as this. But I think it is good that we are able to at least get you looking in the right direction. Thanks!